


The Bad Beginning

by eg03



Series: Outsider POV [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Confessions, Love Confessions, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eg03/pseuds/eg03
Summary: Follows a case from the POV of a local who gets kidnapped with Cas by some random monsters.
Relationships: Castiel & Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Outsider POV [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069655
Comments: 2
Kudos: 85





	The Bad Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't edited at ALL so it's not as good as it could be. I mean I just finished the first draft and said fuck it I didn't even go back for grammar so. Sorry about that. I have homework yk. Also I don't feel like going through and italicizing all the words I italicized in google docs so... use your imagination.

Hanging upside down covered in poo-smelling goo, one has to ask oneself, what led me to this point? That was a question Merrily James was asking herself this very moment. 

Sure, she was squirming, screaming (if muffled by the goo covering her mouth), and watching wild-eyed as two men battled some strange monster that bleed green slime. But she was, also, somewhere deep down, asking herself that question. 

A spurt of green-blood-slime flicked across her face as the beast’s head was cut off with a machete, and she muffle-screamed her joy at their victory. One of the men shot her a goofy grin and a thumbs up. 

Then three more of the creatures jumped down from the ceiling of the dark cave.

What led me to this point?

\--

Pristine, orderly, and colorful. She patted the desk fondly, a small smile pushing her glasses slightly further down her nose. She righted them with a carefully manicured hand before standing.

The rising sun cast soft orange light through the windows. She flicked the overhead switch and slowly the fluorescent lights buzzed to life, reflecting off the blinding white floor. Much better.

A new, beautiful Monday to wash away the unpleasantness of the previous week. The air was thick with the scent of the hundreds of flowers filling the shop, morphing as she walked through the store, occasionally righting an off-kilter pot. A new, beautiful Monday soon to be ruined by the arrival of customers. 

Outside, a small child, tilting forward against the weight of their backpack, picked a pristine white tulip and smiled at it fondly. The sound of her heels rapidly clicked over to the door and she swung it open.

“Young man! What a terrible thing to do, that flower does not belong to you.” The child’s face fell and he dropped the flower on the ground before awkwardly running away. “Get back here!” She sighed angrily as he disappeared around a corner. “Wicked little beast.”

“Good morning, Merrily!” A smooth voice called from her right. A woman in a sweater, nursing a steaming cup of what smelled like hot chocolate.

“Oh, well. Good morning Ellen. And please, it’s Ms. James.” She hid her satisfaction and the way the other woman’s smile fell slightly at that.

“Oh. Of course. Well, anyway, I just wanted to see how you were doing, what with what happened and all.” And isn’t that just like Ellen, to bring up what’s better left dead and buried. She sighed sharply and stood taller.

“I’m just fine, thank you.” And whatever reply the woman was spitting forth was cut off as her heels clicked back into the shop, pulling the door closed behind her.

(On reflection, Merrily James recognized this new, beautiful Monday as the start of the troubles that led her to the predicament this story began with. See, the unpleasantness of the last week had taken the form of an unfortunate, unexpected, and altogether unusual passing of a man in her shop. She had spoken to the police, who seemed themselves baffled, and after that had put the whole thing behind her. Or so she assumed.)

\--

The monsters were grotesque. They looked like a mix between wolf, fly, and wasp. They oozed at every joint, beady eyes reflecting the world so you could never tell where they were focusing. If they were intelligent, they didn’t show it. They just kept pouring in. 

The two men were struggling to fend them off, and one of them began fighting his way closer to her and the unconscious man hanging next to her.

\--

It was midday when a man in a suit was walking through the shop. He eyed the space strangely, peeking behind pots, sniffing dust. He was clearly making his way towards the back, towards her, and with every step she found herself disliking the strange man more and more. He looked vaguely familiar.

“Hi, Ms. James?” She eyed him closely, giving him an up and down glance. He seemed clean-cut, put together, if not for his facial hair.

“Yes, I am she.”

“Awesome,” she made a small noise of disapproval at the informality, and the man wiped the artificial smile clean off his face, “uh… right, I’m Detective Poe, I’m with the FBI, I’m here to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind?”

The FBI? In her flower shop? Demanding her to answer questions, using improper language? She stood taller and crossed her arms, raising a scathing eyebrow at the detective.

“I already spoke with the police.”

“Right, well, we’d- I’d just like to hear it for myself. Get a feel for what happened.”

“I suppose.”

“Great, so-”

“Dean.” Another man entered the shop, this one much less… clean than the first. His coat was rumpled and filthy, tie askew. One of the lights began flickering above him. The first man closed his eyes and sighed before turning around and walking towards the man.

“I thought I told you to wait in the car.” He was speaking in hushed tones, probably assuming she couldn’t hear well enough to understand. Impolite.

“It was boring.” The other, more rumpled man replied shortly and loudly. His hair was just as messy as his clothing. He was staring intensely at the detective. In fact, everything about him seemed... intense. As though he were thrumming with energy. The longer she looked at him, the more unnerved she became.

“It- Right, it was boring.” The detective sighed and chuckled softly. “Well, did you at least bring your badge?” He looked at the odd man expectantly.

“What badge?” 

“Your- the. Nevermind. Just. Don’t… say anything. Pick out a flower.” The detective replied before making his way back over to her. The creepy man rolled his eyes and followed.

“Hi, Ms. James. Sorry about that. Where were we?”

“You were going to ask me questions you could just look up in the police report.” He was silent for a moment. The odd man behind him grew a very small grin.

“Right.” Another moment of silence. “So, uhm, what happened when you found the body?”

“I came in to open the shop like I always do and there he was.”

“Who?”

“The dead man.”

“No, yeah, I mean wh-”

“I didn’t know him.”

“Okay. Uh, well where was he?”

“The ceiling.”

“The ceiling?”

“That’s what I said.”

“How was he on the ceiling?”

“Some sort of goo was holding him up there. It was all over the place. I had to throw out half of my displayed inventory.” He glanced around at the flowers.

“Goo?” The odd man leaned forward, eyes squinted and focused entirely on Merrily. His voice was rough, like his throat couldn’t process his voice. She took a step back.

“That is what I said.” The detective cleared his throat and glanced quickly at the odd man.

“Well, I’m sorry about your inventory. What else can you tell me about the… goo?”

“It smelled.”

“Okay… wh-”

“I don’t know, it just smelled. And it was blackish green.”

“Uhm… w-”

“Did you see any bizarre creatures on the premises?” The odd man, again. She spoke at the same as the detective:

“What he means to ask-”  
“What do you mean?”  
Her eyes danced between the two, brows pinched. The detective continued on.

“is whether you saw any animals on the scene. Something like this, that’s usually what we look at first.”

“Oh. Well, no, I didn’t. Though come to think of it, there was a lot of dust.”

“Dust?” The two said at the same time. By now, they were side-by-side. The odd man’s head was tilted, still wearing that intense expression, and the detective was leaning into him, chin pointing up on the question.

“That is what I said.” 

“Did you see any piles of skin?” She and the detective both made sounds of shock at the odd man’s question.

“Cas…”  
“Skin!?”

He smirked as he responded, “that is what I said.”

“Excuse him, he d-”

“I think I’m going to have to ask you two to leave.”

“Ms. James, please, we’re only-”

“Now.” The detective sighed. The two turned and began to walk towards the entrance.

“Why couldn’t you just get a flower?”

“From the shop where a dead body was found under biologically inexplicable circumstances?”

“Yes, from the…” Their voices faded as they walked out, and she sat heavily at the desk. She replaced the flickering light once they left.

That night, she called animal control to take care of the raccoons she heard rummaging behind the shop.

\--

The man finally managed to make his way over and cut down the odd man swinging next to her. She, very loudly, let him know she was still there, but he just grimaced at her sympathetically before turning back to the fight, carrying the other with him.

It only took a minute for him to regain his senses, and once he did, he was like nothing she’d ever seen. More and more of the monsters were pouring in, but he moved through them like water. The other two were formidable, but this man was nearly divine in his movement. A faint light poured off of him, so that it almost hurt to watch. He started shouting over the noise of the battle.

“These are ancient beasts, ones thought long dead! That’s why they were able to subdue me with their-” he paused, shaking a hand of one of the things off his throat, before placing his own on it’s head and burning it from the inside out, “secretions! Be very careful, the only way to kill them is to cut their heads off with silver.”

“Yeah, we figured that one out, Cas!”

“Not the silver part, we didn’t!”

“Not the time, Sammy!”

\--

On Tuesday, she ran into the odd man at the grocery store.

She was minding her business, filling her cart with this and that, when another customer rammed his cart into the hers as she turned a corner.

“Excuse me! Watch where you’re g-”

“You own the flower shop.” Another light was flickering. They needed to fix the lights in this town.

“I do. You ask people about piles of skin.” He ignored the comment, looking around the store with a look of utter, helpless confusion. She tried not to look at him, he was still as unnerving as before. She pulled her cardigan closer around herself, and was shocked by static on the fabric.

“What kinds of food do adult humans enjoy eating?” He said it almost to himself, still looking around the store, distracted.

“What?” At that he turned his attention back to her, and she instantly regretted it. He looked at her so intensely, it was as though the air around her was thrumming.

“It's not your fault that the car crashed. You prayed, thirty-six years ago, asking for forgiveness. None was needed. I asked what adults enjoy eating, I think Sam mentioned something about cereal.” She couldn’t find any words, staring at him, mouth slightly open, eyes wide as he looked into her eyes.

“Where is the captain crunched?” His voice was still rough and deep, like the sound before thunder. She blinked, and slowly pointed in the direction of the cereal aisle. He nodded once. “Thank you.” 

As he walked away, she noticed the occasional box of food fall off the shelf next to him.

She decided to end her grocery trip early.

\--

“Dean, watch out!”

“Thanks!”

“Cas, get those things off that lady!”

She hadn’t stopped screaming since three of the things started to crawl down the slime-rope towards her.

The odd man made quick work of them, though, and nodded at her before returning to the fight, by the detective’s side.

“Sam, get over here! We’ll work back-to-back!”

\--

On Wednesday, animal control told her they didn’t see any signs of raccoons.

One, very tall, man came in to buy a single flower “present at the scene of the crime.” She charged him twenty extra dollars.

She found some slime she and the police missed the week before, and cleaned it up.

\--

Eventually, she stopped seeing the monsters pour down towards them, but there were still more than enough left that she knew it wasn’t over.

\--

Thursday was when it all went wrong. Of course, it was the odd man’s fault. He had come to her shop, and she had immediately told him:

“I’m not answering any more of your questions.” If her voice was shaking, it could be blamed on the broken heating system. A light in the front exploded, and she screamed.

“I’m not here to ask questions, I want to purchase flowers.”

“Did you do that?” She wasn’t yelling. He turned and looked at the pile of glass she was pointing at. He turned back to her.

“What kind of flowers do you buy someone with whom you share a profound bond, driving you to rebel against everything you’ve ever known, inspiring feelings you’ve never felt, and changing your very view of the universe after you accidentally burn a hole through the wall of his motel?” She gaped at him. He had said it matter-of-factly, as though he were asking red or pink roses?, not… whatever that was. She cleared her throat.

“What’s she like?”

“He is the most righteous, loving man I have ever met. He cares for his family with a fierce loyalty, and treasures his car. He... also likes pie and porn.”

“...One moment.” She rushed to the back room, towards the phone, hoping to call the police. The line, though, was dead. And the backdoor was nailed shut years ago. She looked around and quickly put together a bouquet of red roses, white lilies, and pink orchids. When she came back out, the odd man was standing exactly as he had been when she left. With shaking hands, she passed the flowers over.

“Would-” she cleared her strained throat, “would you like a note?”

“What do you suggest?” She stared for a minute, and then looked down at her pen and pile of card paper. She picked up each and handed them over.

“Here, just… write from the heart.” He tilted his head at her. “Something like, ‘I treasure you too much to let this come between us, my love. Sincerely,‘ and then, uh, just put your name. You can take those with you, bye now!” He looked down at the pen and paper, scribbled out exactly what she had told him to, adding “Castiel” for the name, and tucked it into the roses just as a loud crash sounded from the back room.

“What was that?”

She didn’t have a chance to answer before four monsters poured in through the door. The odd man gasped in surprise, the most emotion she’s ever seen him convey, before he ripped the head off of one. She had already been screaming, but that made her scream harder. She watched as two of them shot slime at the man, watched as he passed out before she lost consciousness.

\--

Finally, the hive dwindled. Finally, she heard the last buzzing cry as the final beast’s head was torn off by the shortest man. They all seemed to sigh together, finally finished with the fighting.

“Uh, guys?” The tallest one stumbled, bringing up a hand clutching his stomach, now covered in blood.

“Sammy!”  
“Sam!”

\--

“Dean! There they are!” The tall man, the one who bought that flower, shouted at the front of the cave. Then the detective came running up next to him

“Cas!” Castiel still hung motionless next to her. She would shout I’m here too, if it weren’t for the goo over her mouth. 

\--  
“Dean, let go, I’ll get him to the hospital.” The detective looked up at him for an intense but short moment, fear etched into his face.

“Okay. Okay, Cas. Hurry.” The odd man nodded once before he vanished into thin air. If her throat weren’t so sore, she would be screaming again.

\--

He returned a while later. She couldn’t be sure how long, the blood rushing to her head as she watched the last man silently cry in the corner, clutching the bouquet of flowers she had just arranged like they were his long lost lover, was kind of distracting. But he came back, and they started talking instead of getting her down. She was too tired to keep screaming.

“Cas! Is he alright?”

“He’ll be fine, he’s in the ICU right now. I would’ve healed him, but these things… like I said-”

“It’s fine Cas,” he pulled the man into a hug, “It’s fine.”

“How did you find me?”

“We looked for you everywhere, saw the mess at the shop, and…” He trailed off, looking down at the (now ruined) flowers in his hand and held them up, shaking them a little, “what’s all this about, buddy?”

“I wanted to apologize for the hole in the motel.”

“Right, yeah, I get that, but what’s with the uh… you know.”

“Merrily suggested those flowers and that note after I explained our situation.”

“Merrily? Who- oh, oh.” Then he seemed to remember she was also there, and ran over to cut her down. He worked the slime off of her so she could move and speak. 

“IT IS ABOUT TIME! I HAVE BEEN HANGING THERE FOR- YOU ALL- I COULD HAVE DIED BECAUSE OF YOU PEOPLE!!!” He backed up a few steps, holding his hands up before speaking.

“Woah, Lady! If it weren’t for us you’d be fucking dead!” She turned to him and took a deep breath, preparing to scream again.

“Merrily, thank you for your help with the flowers. Would you like to return to your shop?” She turned to Castiel, eyes bugging out of her head. She was about to let loose when he brought two fingers to her head, and she felt herself pass out.

\--

She woke up in the back of a car. She could hear voices, two of them, talking.

“Look, man it’s just not really… like what does it mean?”

“Dean, I don’t understand, do you not like the flowers?”

She tried to move, or talk, but just the thought of it nearly made her fall asleep again.

“It’s not that- I mean no, or yes I… No, Cas, no, of course I love the flowers that’s not what’s…”

“The note, then?”

“Yeah, the note. It’s just…”

“It was Merrily’s idea. Though, I do feel that way.” There was a strangled noise and silence.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, after I told her of our bond and your devotion, and your affinity for porn and pie-”

“Cas!”

“-she suggested I include that note with the gift. I don’t see why this upsets you.” The other voice, the detective, swallowed. He was silent for a while.

“I’m not upset. First of all, I’m worried that you could’ve died-”

“I already told you, I’m fine, Dean.”

“-and, there’s… there’s certain.. connotations with that kind of gift with that kind of note. I was just… confused.”

“What connotations?” The detective chuckled nervously. She was still too tired (and scared) to make it known she was awake.

“You know…”

“Obviously, I do not.” That pulled a real laugh out of the detective.

“Like, romantic shit. I thought… I don’t know. Doesn’t matter.”

“What did you think?”

“It doesn’t matter, man.”

“Well, it clearly matters to you, so I would like to-”

“It’s nothing, Cas! It doesn’t matter I already-”

“-know why. I care about what upsets you, Dean.”

“-figured out…” at that, he sighed, “I just thought that you, like, were telling me you loved me or something-”

“Of course I love you, Dean.”

“-which is obviously impossible because one, you’re an angel; two, I’m me; and three- wait, what?”  
She froze even more than she was already frozen. If she hadn’t watched him fight those creatures herself, she would call them insane. But that’s just it, they’d probably… probably drugged her with a hallucinogen or something. Marijuana.

“What?”

“You love me?”

“Why wouldn’t I love you?”

“You mean in, like, an ‘I love humanity’ way, right?”

“Of course.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Though, my feelings for you are vastly more complex than they are for the rest of humanity, or angels, for that matter.”

“...”

The car was stopped at a red light, and she could make out their silhouettes, now. The detective was staring at Castiel.

“What do you mean?”

“I rebelled for you. I prevented the end of the world for you. Of course I feel differently for you.”

The end of the world?

“Cas. What do you mean.”

“What isn’t clear? I love you more complexly than the rest of humanity, I already said that, Dean.”

“What… I don’t… how… what does that… mean, how do you mean?”

“I don’t understand it myself, I only know it to be true. It’s like you said, we’re family.”

“Oh.” Somewhere behind them, someone honked their horn. The car lurched forward.

“Where are you taking me?” She croaked. They both turned back to look at her.

“Your house. Go back to sleep. Cas, you’re saying you love me like family?”

“I suppose so, yes.”

“Not romantically, then.” The car was once again plunged into silence.

“It’s an affront to god for an angel to love a human.”

“Oh. Okay.” He swallowed, again. “So, you’re saying it’s not possible for an angel to love a human? Not that I like… I just mean, you know, for clarity’s sake...” Again, a stretch of silence.

“It is possible.”

“But it’s… an affront to God?” Castiel sighed.

“Yes. Or, not directly, but it’s frowned upon. It presents the danger of producing a nephilim, which is forbidden. That is the affront to God.”

She was close to passing out again.

“So it’s just, like, angel homophobia, then?”

“I don’t know what that means.” The detective chuckled, and they were silent again. She could start to make out the buildings passing outside the windows, and she realized they were close to her house. When Castiel spoke again, it made her jump. She could move now.

“I don’t know what romantic love feels like.” The detective, for lack of a better term, squawked.

“Well… don’t worry, buddy. I’m sure you’ll, uh, figure it out some day.”

“How will I know? The difference, I mean.” Castiel was looking at the detective very closely, eyes unreadable. His skin was almost glowing.

“Well… I mean.” He swallowed loudly, again, and cleared his throat. “It hurts, I guess. At least… when you can’t act on it. It hurts like a bitch,” he let out a cold laugh, “feels like… feels like you’re drowning. You’d do anything for each other, but he- or, whoever- doesn’t, you know, they don’t want you the same way. Don’t… crave, or cry, or… I mean, you know, it’s just intense. And the wanting to have sex part is a pretty big give away, I guess. I don’t know, you should ask Sam. He had Jess. Of course, she died in the fire,” he went on rambling, voice shaking slightly, until Castiel cut in.

“Dean.”

“Yeah, Cas?” 

“I love you.” The detective-- Dean-- laughed. There wasn’t much joy in it.

“Thanks, buddy. L- I, uh. You know... me too.”

“No, Dean. I mean I love you.” At that the car screeched to a stop, and Dean practically ripped his body in half to turn and look at Castiel.

“What do you mean?” Castiel rolled his eyes.

“What do you think, Dean?” At that, Dean started to move forward, laughing softly.

“I’m still here.” They both turned to look at her, faces somewhat annoyed, somewhat confused.

“So get out. This is your house.” She looked out the window, and sure enough, it was her house. 

She left and walked towards the door, and as she did, she pointedly ignored the noises coming from the car behind her.

As she sat down in the living room and turned on the TV to a show about unsolved FBI cases, she remembered why the detective looked so familiar.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr is gothchester


End file.
